1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to cleaning methods. More specifically, the invention relates to a cleaning method useful for cleaning shoes, namely, athletic shoes.
2. Description of Related Art
The shoe industry has emerged as a billion dollar industry. Consumers of all ages pay top dollar for celebrity endorsed athletic footwear. In fact, in some segments of the population, consumers refuse to wear anything but the newest, and often most expensive, athletic style shoe. Many different types of people purchase athletic shoes: some are joggers who need the proper arch support; some are women who use walking shoes to replace high heels on their journey to work; still others are the "serious athletic types" or "weekend warriors" who love to play basketball or other sports; and finally some simply like to wear nice athletic shoes. Though there are different types of consumers who purchase athletic shoes, they all have one trait in common, they like their shoes to be clean. This desire for clean, impressive looking shoes has gone a long way in fueling the growth of the shoe industry. The motivation in purchasing new athletic footwear is not due, in large part, to a desire for the "latest" shoe, but simple in the desire to have clean, nice looking shoes that add to the appearance of the wearer.
Unfortunately, there has never been an apparatus or method of cleaning shoes that was adequate in properly cleaning athletic shoes. The conventional devices or methods never left the shoes looking "brand new", it was always evident that the shoes were simply old shoes that someone had attempted to clean. The failure of the existing shoe cleaning methods forced the consumers to either wear dirty looking shoes, or purchase new expensive shoes when an event called for them to wear nice footwear (e.g., at a social club picnic). Consumers would jump at the opportunity to have their shoes professionally cleaned rather than pay large sums of money to purchase a new pair of shoes simply because their old pair are dirty. No longer would consumers need to waste good money on new shoes when the only flaw in the old shoes was that they were dirty. There is, therefore, need for a method of cleaning athletic shoes that includes the steps of chemical application, dirt agitation, high pressure steam application, high pressure air, shoe buffing, high pressure vacuum application, and shoe drying such that at the conclusion of the method application, the cleaned shoe looks new. The present invention provides such a method.